adj, noun, slang ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any specific chemical element or chemical compound or alloy.

   "Hydrogen and sulphur are both chemicals."

2. 2
   material produced by or used in a reaction involving changes in atoms or molecules wordnet
3. 3
   An artificial chemical compound. colloquial

   "I color my hair with henna, not chemicals."

4. 4
   An addictive drug. slang

Adjective

1. 1
   Of or relating to chemistry. not-comparable

   "chemical experiments"

2. 2
   Of or relating to a material or processes not commonly found in nature or in a particular product. not-comparable
3. 3
   Of or relating to alchemy. not-comparable, obsolete

Adjective

1. 1
   relating to or used in chemistry wordnet
2. 2
   of or made from or using substances produced by or used in reactions involving atomic or molecular changes wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

absolute alcoholacetateacetoneacidacidifyacidity

Example

More examples

"Immediately after it caught fire, the chemical factory blew up."

Etymology

From chemic (“alchemy”) + -al (“related to”).

Related phrases

bio-physico-chemicalchemical abortionchemical affinitychemical agentchemical beam epitaxychemical biologychemical bombchemical bondchemical carchemical castrationchemical cellchemical change

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.